They sat at nearby table to Erica Carlyle and take a moment to discuss the events that transpired over the last few days. They pondered deeply over some of the notes of Jackson Elias especially the notes from Nairobi. They then discussed how they wanted to approach meeting Ms. Carlyle, though the suggestion of Samuel Paletta to raid the joint in violation of the Volstead Act was a good one, Dr. Norman Addams thought a subtler approach would work better. So Jacques Tabarin Dupond approached Ms. Carlyle while she went over to the bar to replenish her drink while her bodyguard’s eyes never left her. Her companion, one Bradley Grey, socialized with nearby patrons, oblivious to her discussions with Monsieur Dupond. Though she was obviously uncomfortable at times during the conversation, Monsieur Dupond was able to reassure her. Eventually she agreed to discuss the tomes of Roger Carlyle at her Estate the following afternoon.

Shortly before Monsieur Dupond concluded his discussion with Erica Carlyle, he started to hear the staff of the National Arts Club discuss a disturbance from the basement offices. After talking to a Concierge, Agent Paletta decided to have them alert the authorities while he went investigate in an official capacity. He discovered that the room belonged to Karl Weltheimer, the VP of the National Arts Club who was in charge of the bookkeeping. No one had seen Mr.Weltheimer for a couple of hours, but that was nothing unusual. Nothing was confirmed to be missing, but the room was torn to shreds. What appeared to be claw marks were found on the desk and on a ledger. After a thorough examination of the room, Agent Paletta found some blood around the desk. Moving the desk, he discovered that there was a hole underneath the desk leading deep into the ground below. At the base of the hole, some 10 feet down is a body. One that is quickly identified as Karl Weltheimer.

By now, both Jacques Tabarin Dupond and Dr. Norman Addams had arrived downstairs to lend their support. Monsieur Dupond lamented once again his lack of a firearm as Agent Paletta drew his and headed down into the hole. Dr. Addams found the tunnel odd, quickly realizing that the only way it could have been dug was by clawed hands of an animal. He was visibly shaken after realizing this. They dropped down to the base of the tunnel to see another tunnel leading off. Agent Paletta noticed a creature hunched down not even 10 feet down the tunnel munching on a human arm. It shifted between looking human to looking like a gray, pallid creature with an ovoid head, nasty teeth, small beady eyes, and visible segments along it’s spine. Everyone is horrified by the sight of this creature. Mr. Paletta shot four shots in pure terror into the creature. Dr. Addams pulled out the sword from his cane, but in the horror of realizing that this was a mythological ghoul who has the face of a friend, Dr. Craven, completely forgot his training. Monsieur Dupond turned his shock into a perfect Savate kick to the ghoul’s head, knocking out some teeth. The ghoul then turned to bite the closest creature, Dr. Addams, ripping into his chest causing his skin to blister and boil. As the ghoul lunged then at Monsieur Dupond, Mr. Paletta shot it’s throat, causing it to collapse in front of them. They all stared in shock at this inhuman creature. Agent Paletta shot a couple of more times to make sure the creature is dead. As he checked the creature, he noticed in his palm, the same sign that was carved into Jackson Elias‘s head. Agent Paletta along with the Doctor and Monsieur Dupond tracked the creature back to it’s lair, miles and miles through the Sewer System underneath New York to a building below Columbia University where they discovered the remains of Dr. Craven not returning back to their hotel until very late in the morning.

January 19th

After a night of disturbing dreams of the events of the evening, the investigators realized that they needed to be at the Carlyle Estate by noon. After some rather reckless driving by Samuel Paletta, they got to the estate, some 6 miles north of Manhattan, along the Hudson River, just shy of noon. After being vetted by the guards at the gate, they are allowed into the large manor house. They are allowed a few minutes to wash up after the muddy drive in the snow, before lunch was served. As decorum stated, no business was discussed during the lunch of soup, sandwiches, and a roasted chicken with a light dessert of cookies and coffee. The investigators and Erica Carlyle then retired to the library to show them the books of Roger Carlyle. Though she did not want to see the books again, she did not also want to leave them alone with people she had barely met. Dr. Norman Addams skimmed over the English translation of The Pnakotic Manuscrips and a tome of Paleolithic religions and cultures titled People of the Monolith. Jacques Tabarin Dupond skimmed over the French commentary on some selections of the Livre d’Ivon detailing the life and rituals of a legendary Hyperborean wizard by the name of Eibon, as well as, a handwritten diary of Montgomery Crompton titled Life as a God. Monsieur Dupond was very much intrigued with the diary of an artist who travelled to Egypt in 1805 to become a priest of the Cult of the Black Pharaoh. The research of Dr. Addams since the events of Military Hospital #5 during the Great War allowed him to help illuminate to Dupond that Pharaoh of a Thousand Ravens and the Black Pharaoh are attributed to the same mythological Pharaoh who reigned in the waning days of the Third Dynasty, though not written about in any standard works of Egyptology. What excited Monsieur Dupond the most was that there were pages in this diary written in hieroglyphics about contacting the Black Pharaoh through dreams. They eerily match the hieroglyphics he found on a scroll in the Roman ruins outside of Military Hospital #5.